(I C U) Ink Review - The Susemai Blues

[dcwaites]

The Susemai Blue Inks

 

 

I am one of those people privileged to have been asked to test Susemai’s new powdered inks.. This is my grand unified review of the Blue inks.

 

Some of us have been concentrating on the looks of those inks. And that is a good thing, because if an ink is ugly, then no one will buy it. However, I have decided to look at how it behaves in a pen, and on papers, particularly poorer papers.

 

There are two colours – Indigo and Turquoise, made up in two different ways. Two were made using a traditional FP ink recipe and two were made using a newer, even more FP friendly recipe. Blue Amber and Blue Cashmere are the Indigo inks, with Amber made to the traditional recipe and Cashmere to the new recipe. Blue Balls and Blue Diamond are the Turquoise inks, with Balls being the traditional recipe and Diamond being the new recipe.

 

I made up a batch of 8% samples of the four inks, and then diluted part of each of those down to 4%, so I could try both concentrations. As well, for one ink I made a sample at 2% to try it with a dip pen.

 

I made some initial trials using a series of pens, but the results were too inconsistent, so I decided to use each colour in the same two pens for a day. One pen, a Jinhao 159 was filled with the 8% sample for the day and the other, a Jinhao X-750, was filled with the 4%. Both nibs were adjusted to be as similar to each other as possible.

 

 

Observations

 

At work, I tried each of the inks on a number of different examples of office- supplied stationery and recorded the results in a log. These are the results

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Day 1 – Blue Amber Traditional Indigo

There was absolutely no feathering on any of the stationery, neither at 4% nor at 8%.

There was also little to no bleed-through. The only exception was a diary with particularly poor and cheap paper. Even then, the bleeding wasn’t too bad.

On hard papers there is little to no spreading, but there is a little spread- ing on softer papers.

So far the only problem I have been having is that the 8% ink has been drying out in the nib tip of the 159.

 

Day 2 – Blue Balls Traditional Turquoise

As with Blue Amber, I have tried this on a number of different types of office stationery. Again, there is no feathering, but this ink does bleed through a little more than the Amber

This ink does write a slightly wider line in the same pen than does the Amber, i.e., there is a little spreading.

I get less dry-out in the nib with this ink.

 

Day 3 – Blue Cashmere New Indigo

No feathering at all on any office stationery, and only minor bleeding on the cheapest/thinnest papers. There was no spreading observed at all. Like the Blue Amber, I got some nib dry-out in the 159 with 8% ink.

I also made up a batch at 2% and have been using it in dip pens. It works quite nicely.

 

Day 4 – Blue Diamond New Turquoise

This ink bleeds a little more than Blue Amber and Blue Balls, however, as with the other inks, there is no feathering on any paper products. However, a new feature seems to be a degree of shading that is not as pro- nounced with Blue Balls, and not visible at all with Amber and Cashmere.

 

 

Summary

 

All four inks are quite well behaved. The Turquoise inks are better behaved in the pen, exhibiting less nib dry-out and are a bit easier to clean out of the pen. However the Indigos are a bit better behaved on paper, showing less spreading and bleed through. Overall, though, these four inks behave better in pens and on papers than many other inks.

 

The Turquoise inks both show a degree of shading that the Indigo inks don’t, with Blue Diamond showing a bit more than Blue Balls, but that may just be my imagination.

 

The inks all tended to dry reasonably quickly on good paper, at less than 10 seconds, but more than 5. After drying the inks showed no tendency to smear.

 

[amberleadavis]

Wow, great write up. Thank you. I'm sure Susemai is reading this.

[dcwaites]

Thank you.

I hope to be able to do up the Blacks this week.

 

And then start looking at blends.

 

I need to buy some more small bottles.

 

Oh, and there's a thing called sleep. Does anybody have any they can spare?